Shiana had been walking for nigh unto an hour, and she had the thought that maybe, simply maybe, she had lost herself around a bend and lost her head ere she left the Justiciar's office.
Liriel had long since gone to sleep, curled in the courtyard as sweetly as any pup, and Shiana had been blessed - or cursed - with only her thoughts for a lengthy time.
The next door she came to, she promised herself, she would enter and ask for bearings. Already, and thrice before, she had cursed her foolish tongue and stubborn pride, her bloody temper and her ready wit. This and more did she silently curse - the thief whose bolt left a gaping furrow in her sleeve. The docks wherein the thief did hide. The shadows that had hidden him, and the air that had carried the arrow. This blasted fort and its contingency of guards and men. The Justiciar and his wine. The Justiciar many times over. And herself, to last the night.
The door that she came across was large, and closed firmly. But taking her life in her hands - or in this case, her pride - the diminutive woman put shoulder to wood and opened it without a knock or signal of her presence.
All she saught was directions... And by all the goddesses of the triple chain, she would have it or burn the place to the earth!
...Well, perhaps not so hasty as that.
"Er, pardon my intrusuion, er, my lady." Shiana's hand groped for the door behind her. "I shall leave you to your, that is, repast. In peace."
A pause, as green eyes widened once more upon the strange figure. Never had she seen such a-- Well, no, that would be a lie. The East had held many stange things, but never had she seen a creature of this sort here in the West!
A hasty retreat would be in order, she thought as her hand found the latch. Now.
Well, she had swore to ask for directions...
Heavens above, let there be some semblance of sanity in this creature, she prayed silently, and stepped towards the... er... lady.
"I beg your pardon," she said with a slight curtsy. "I am seeking the way out." Yes, indeed, there was NO way on the Goddesses' blasted earth she would stay here a moment longer than she had to. "I've lost my way," she admitted, then frowned when she found herself comparing her own admission to that of a certain wolf-stalked red-caped maiden in the woods.
Gathering her courage, for the Lady Delirium was a fearsome thing even on her good days, Shiana bravely (loudly?) asked, "Could you point int he right direction?" A pause. "As soon as humanely - or perhaps not quaintly so put - possible?"
Delirium of Endless Barrens was not given often to speech to those outside of the Barrens and the Ministry of Magi. Very few in the realms hath ever seen her and certainly NEVER when she fed.
Blood ran in rivulets down her face and neck and stained the fine blue brocade of her bodice. A splatter of bones, gore and tissue lay at her feet and her hands were bright with the blood and viscera of her victim. The rank smell of what the Ard Rhighan called Delirium's "entrails cotillions" permeated the small, dank chamber. It nauseated the Baroness and it was an enormous effort not to vomit at the shock of the smell and sight before her.
Delirium wiped her bloodied lips on the sleeve of her gown and her snake-like eyes raked over the body of the lady so bold to not run at sight of her ghastly beauty and nature. 'Not game', she surmised. A look to her minion barring the threshold.
MS
'Close the door. Clear the carcass.'
Pesadilla scurried past the Baroness with her eyes cast downward. Servile,obedient. She kneeled on the blood-splattered flagstones and cleared away the remnants of her Mistress's "dinner".
It is many long moments before Delirium speaks to answer the lady's question. Her voice is long un-used.
"Yesssssss........I cansssssssst.........tttttthhrrreeeeeee doorsssss sssshall yeeeeeeea passssssss.......ttturn upppon the sssssstairwelll attt yeeeeeea lefttt....passss ttthe Unicorrrrn tapesssssstriessssss iinnnn the bbbbblaaaaaackk hall....." a forked tongue flickers out to lick the blood from teeth the colour of bleached bone. "Yeea willl neeeeddddd ttthe keeysssss tttooooo passssssss ttthe gattte behiiiind ttthe ttthirddddd tttapesssstry........tissssss a sssssssecrettt waaaay......"
A taloned finger uncurls menancingly;pointing to the trestle table to Shiana's left. Upon the table, beside a kriss bladed dagger art silver keys secured on a ring of bones.
Pale, features frozen in an excruciatingly polite expression, the Baroness drops a deep curtsy - best to err on the side of caution - and reaches for the keys.
"Ah, thank you, my lady. I hope I did not... er... ruin your repast." Shiana takes a firm step backward, keys jangling. "I shall have this returned to you... ah, right away, my lady." A smile, wavered but held.
And then she whirled and was out the door, quick before the Lady Delirium could change her mind. Or the smells simply got too bad.
Down the hall, three doors, yes... stairwell, unicorn... Ah!
With neither thought nor hesitation, she enters the passage, keys gripped in her small hand like a weapon and eyes wide as she sent a rather loud call to Liriel.
*If you're not awake by the time I arrive, you dragon, I'll be leaving without you!*
A grumble was her one response.
The Unicorn Tapestries
Having found the Black Hall and navigated its long length, the Baroness stopped at the third tapestry that the Lady Delirium had directed her to find. Shiana lifted its edge and beyond it lay the gate that was promised. The doorway tis barred shut by a gate and a panel, marked with black ciphers, and a pattern spell strung with elvyn runes.
Three invitations and a challenge.
The Baroness's determination is ironically amused. "Or else three temptations and the proverbial double-edged puzzle?"
The Black Hall only gave back silence for answer and so, Shiana studied the silver key hanging on the bone ring rather intently ere she made her decision to proceed.
Shiana: Beyond the Unicorns
...Fingering the key upon the ring, Shiana made her decision ere she took one step further.
All she wished was her son, a way to get to her son, a reason that the Fates would detain her so.
A woman getting upon forty could not long last in a contest of wills that stretched thin the patience of a mortal woman.
The key entered the lock with a faint click, small resistance. And as the door swung wide with a creak of old hinges and stuborn face, she peered into the portal and prayed to INU that all would be well.
She would need to meet the woman that would be her guide, and soon.
Shiana Dominique
Baroness Lost
